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Post by pinkie on Nov 30, 2014 16:55:37 GMT
I may need help (thank you, no heckling required Cagey, Gordon, anyone else for that matter) Inspired by my visit to Sovereigns lair, and a bit frustrated we were unable to compare anything in the way of a bake off, due to connection incompatibility, I decided to put the first tentative toe in the water of file based audio. And already I've made my first embarrasing gaff - I bet the rest of you know this anyway, but the default rip from itunes and windows media player isn't a flac - its an mp3 or mp4. well, well, well (three holes in the ground) I discovered this, because I nearly went on a foo trail. Having had a chat with a pal about digital interfaces, on his suggestion, to "give it a go" I got the cheapest chinese usb to toslink adaptor I could find (Maplin, £6). Plugged the laptop into the DaCapo using it, including the free toslink cable (plastic) and sure enough got music, with both Sue and I going "its ok but a bit flat. A bit dull" - now don't throw things, but a bit stock SL1200) Well, even I have a better toslink cable in a drawer, but before going down the cables and interfaces path I thought I'd look at the file types, which I just assumed since they were on a "proper" PC and not a portable would be FLAC I have a lot to learn, evidently  |
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Post by MartinT on Nov 30, 2014 17:20:33 GMT
If you want uncompressed files, download Exact Audio Copy (EAC) which will easily generate WAV files for you to play with.
How you get them to your DAC is the next step. You may find your DVD/Blu-ray player will stream them, or else look at our inexpensive Raspberry Pi project. Or just do what you're doing with a laptop outputting S/PDIF via an optical connection.
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Post by John on Nov 30, 2014 17:34:36 GMT
The iTunes has a wav converter and can also rip in WAV exact copy is a good way to go
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Post by John on Nov 30, 2014 17:36:45 GMT
It's worth spending more on the converter I can lend you some if you want
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Post by pinkie on Nov 30, 2014 18:46:30 GMT
John. Thanks for the offer. Be good to meet some time. I believe you and Sovereign have plans I might gate crash. :)You'll have to be gentle with me. But I can't put my head in the sand forever. I need to move into the 21st century.  |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2014 19:39:11 GMT
I may need help (thank you, no heckling required Cagey, Gordon, anyone else for that matter) Qui? Moi?
I am interested to hear your findings on this one.
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Post by Sovereign on Nov 30, 2014 20:32:36 GMT
I know very little about this area, and as you know my only source is my MacBook Pro.
I know when I was with John at Electricbeach's house, we had two laptops one was mine and I didn't recognise the other. There was a vast difference in sound quality between the two and I have no idea why, John may know more.
I think the sound my laptop / DAC produces is superb, I would like to go the Rasberry PI route at some point as I believe there is an improvement to be had.
I have an hiface from M2tech which is a USB spdif converter you can borrow if you want .
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Post by John on Nov 30, 2014 20:52:54 GMT
James was using an Apple laptop
The other was windows 7 but it was not using any special software
James laptop sounded excellent with the DDAC
A week ago I heard the best computer music I heard yet and easily best the Bel Canto transport
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Post by John on Nov 30, 2014 20:54:52 GMT
The laptop was Steve but was not optimised for music playback
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Post by Sovereign on Nov 30, 2014 21:10:55 GMT
A week ago I heard the best computer music I heard yet and easily best the Bel Canto transport Spill the beans mate |
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Post by pinkie on Nov 30, 2014 21:58:36 GMT
I have never before so old, out of touch, and like a clone of my dad. Let me take it in gentle stages. I have now a flac version of dave migden. For starters let me compare that with the cd. Then maybe we can bring James dac over and compare the interfaces. Honest, I'm much more comfortable with 12 inch vinyl.  |
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Post by pinkie on Dec 4, 2014 21:11:23 GMT
Ok guys. First numpty question. Do you want me to post my experiences here, or on another thread - like my 21st century Pinkie thread? (That wasn't the numpty question) 2 questions actually. Let me explain the problem. As previously explained, I bought a cheap usb / optical converter and plugged the laptop into the DaCapo. The results were poor, because I was playing mp3 files (and maybe other reasons). I noted that I have FLAC versions of Dave Migden. I think they were a download option with the CD. So I didn't rip them. I thought to double click on a track in the music folder to hear it on the Dac and Windows doesn't reconcile the file type. So 1) How do I play FLAC files ? Should I convert to WAV and will windows media player, itunes etc then play them? How do I convert to WAV? (This is getting more Monty Python and what the Romans did for us by the second) 2) Having got the first 3 questions out the way and called it one, How do I get more FLAC files? How do I rip to FLAC, or WAV or whatever? 3) (I give up on the "2 questions") Is there a recommended player I should use for this new venture - I have Windows 7 PC's? 4) Given that until now I have ripped CD's to get MP3's for synching to a phone to play them portably, what is the efficient way to organise digital music for both Hi res and portable use? That'll probably do for now. Don't forget, you asked for it! Read more: theaudiostandard.net/thread/501/raspberry-based-audio-streamer-project?page=8#ixzz3Kxvbxuqs |
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Post by ChrisB on Dec 4, 2014 21:26:27 GMT
If you just want to play a FLAC file quickly and maybe convert it to other formats, downloading Foobar is free and the controls are pretty intuitive. I expect you'll want to use something else once you get serious but this is quick and easy. |
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Post by pinkie on Dec 4, 2014 21:26:32 GMT
Good to create your own blog No need to convert FLAC to WAV I suggest just get used to using files before worrying to much about formats Use either Exact Copy or DB Poweramp J River is a good one to use Lots of ways to organise your files You could do by alphabet, genres etc I do think you need a better converter Thanks John I don't understand at all. How do I get used to using a file when windows tells me it doesnt recognise it? MP3's sound very poor I've downloaded exact copy (but thank you - I wouldnt have known where to start looking for it). I'll have a play Will look for JRiver next. I think I meant how do I avoid having 2 libraries - a synch to portable, and a hi-res library. Is there a good way to just have one for both purposes The Dac is a key issue. DaCapo should be history - its 20 years old. It can't deal with hi-res (more questions to follow, not sure of its limits) but on red book it is so far ahead of anything I have briefly recently experienced (rega, MDac, Cyrus) I am astonished and cautious. I don't mind blowing a couple of hundred on one of Stans Dac's but I fear if it falls short of DaCapo it is just going to turn me off the whole idea. James (Sovereign) seems very keen on his DAC and we can do a comparison. Does that rank as "better" for you?  |
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Post by Stratmangler on Dec 4, 2014 21:47:09 GMT
Richard
Blanket comments such as "Mp3s sound very poor" are factually incorrect - the ones you have encountered to date may well be poor, but since you do not give us any indication of the bitrate and the ripping engine it's a cheap comment to say the least.
Mp3s can indeed sound very poor, but Mp3 done properly can sound very good indeed.
I agree with ChrisB that Foobar is a good and free way to go as far as media players go.
As a player it has a very basic interface, but there are loads of plugins available for it.
One thing you will need if you want to convert WAV files over to FLAC is flac.exe - you'll need to point Foobar at it as a follow up to the ripping process, as the FLAC compression is performed post rip.
If you have difficulty finding flac.exe drop me a line and I'll figure out a way to get a copy to you.
EAC is another good way to perform secure rips (it also needs a copy of flac.exe to be pointed at), but you'll need to set it up properly.
You'll need to set it up properly applies to just about anything you care to mention when it comes to file based playback - I'm fully on the fence with the FLAC/WAV debate, as I cannot hear any differences between the two when the hardware and software are properly set up, and the A/B/X/Y plugin for Foobar is a really useful tool for getting to the bottom of any perceived differences or not.
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Post by Pinch on Dec 4, 2014 22:06:01 GMT
4) Given that until now I have ripped CD's to get MP3's for synching to a phone to play them portably, what is the efficient way to organise digital music for both Hi res and portable use? JRiver Media Center is great for this - it enables you to completely customise the way your files are organised, taking care of the directory structure and folder labelling conventions, and file naming conventions. As well as keeping things nice and tidy on your hard disk, this functionality can be really handy for managing the content on a portable player, since you can use JRiver to manage the files as if the player were an external hard drive. It will also transfer files to an iPod, and can be set to automatically convert them to an Apple compatible format (supposing they're flacs), so there's no need to maintain two libraries - the main files are kept in the library, and an mp3 clone is sent to just your portable player. It's also a fine player, and can take care of any converting you need (it comes with both the flac and standard mp3 conversion tools). Alas, unlike foobar - also a great player - it aint free. But it'll work well in conjunction with the RPi , if you elect to go down that route, and you can control playback functions with your phone/tablet, so very convenient. For ripping, EAC is one to go for. There are a bewildering array of options, but there are some good step by step guides online. |
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Post by Eduardo Wobblechops on Dec 4, 2014 22:09:51 GMT
There should be a free trial version to try.
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Post by John on Dec 5, 2014 7:09:40 GMT
As people suggest Jriver is good to go for and worth the free trail
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Post by John on Dec 5, 2014 7:17:19 GMT
Foobar is good but I think for a newbie better to go for Jriver as Foobar to get the best user experience means adding plug ins and imagine you want life as simple as possible
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Post by ChrisB on Dec 5, 2014 7:20:05 GMT
I didn't realise there was a free trial of jriver, hence my suggestion of foobar as a quick way of getting going.
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